Jeanfield & Wellshill Cemetery ~ Polish War Graves

The cemetery was chosen as a Polish war grave cemetery during the Second World War – southern end by the Jeanfield Road entrance. After the fall of France (1940), part of the Polish Army reformed in Britain as the 1st Polish Corps – their role in Scotland was to protect the eastern coast against invasion.

Headstones – pointed tip and the crowned eagle of Poland. The gravestones are ‘predominantly laid out in three rows with graves on both sides of the row. In most cases each grave contains the remains of two members of the Polish forces.’

‘The Register of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission detail 354 Polish war graves – 339 Army, 4 Navy, 9 Air Force, 1 Nurse, and 1 Civilian. Excluded from the Polish casualties are 26 members of the Polish Resettlement Corps who are included in the British statistics and G K Langer of the PRC who died on 30 March 1948.

The earliest Polish war grave is that of pchor (Officer Cadet) Ulrych-Uleneski

Next section includes Poles who died after the war but are commemorated as ‘Late Polish Forces’ – plus those whose families requested that they be buried near their comrades

Gwido Langer Lieutenant Colonel d. 30/4/1948 age 53 Polish Resettlement Corps – Exhumed in 2010 at the request of his daughter, returned to Poland and reburied in his home town of Cieszyn with full military honours. ‘Langer was the head of the Polish Cipher Bureau, and led a team which in 1932 broke the code of the Enigma Cipher machine. Shortly before the outbreak of war in July 1939 Polish Intelligence shared their breakthrough with the British and French Secret Services. The Poles code breaking work on Enigma was continued by the British at Bletchley Park.’